How to find a GOOD Financial Advisor? (fund, pay, sell)

[Roma]

Help please!

How would one go about finding a GOOD Financial Advisor? Where do I start? What do I look for?

Thanks!

[truckingbronco]

Get some referals and then interview the prospective advisors. Don't deal with the *******s who cold call.

[Hungry For Cheese]

read some books and invest in yourself......but if you don't have the time/ability/desire to do so, you gotta go with referals and references.
good luck

[davidt1]

Originally Posted by Roma

Help please!

How would one go about finding a GOOD Financial Advisor? Where do I start? What do I look for?

Thanks!

I remember you were the one with $50K and wanted to invest. How is that going? It's been how long now, 2 months? If you picked the right stocks, your return would have been as much as 150%. How to find a good financial adviser? Good question! Here is something I saw at Yahoo Finance. It's a start.

Yahoo! Choosing a Financial Advisor

[Roma]

Originally Posted by davidt1

I remember you were the one with $50K and wanted to invest. How is that going? It's been how long now, 2 months? If you picked the right stocks, your return would have been as much as 150%.

david1, I wish I had a 150% return. I obviously didn't pick the right stocks. You asked How it's going? Well, not good at all. I made a lot of mistakes.

I got into the market at the end of July (when it was around 13,500) then 2 days later the market tanked. It came back up but I am still long in a couple of positions and some of those didn't recover like others did. Then (LRCX) did something funky about a week ago and I was already long in that position and now, boy oh boy I'm dead in it. (Their earnings were good but 2 days later it came out that their sector was down) So the stock dropped and dropped fast. And I was already long in it.

So now I want to go a different route. I was thinking Mutual Funds or ETF's or even a CD.

I'm obviously not educated in all of this (as you can probably tell) and I need help.

We actually have more then $50,000 but that was my trade money. I cashed out of what I could and now I need to put it somewhere ($34,000). We have Mutual fund and other stuff through a financial advisor already but I don't like him. We retired 3 years ago and my husband used him for his company stock and we just kept him but I found out he put us in all loaded funds and everything we are in is to get him money (not what is best for us but what is best for him). So I want to find someone new.

[StealthRabbit]

this recent post should help the investment questions.
http://www.city-data.com/forum/busin...-vanguard.html

to find a good adviser is pretty tough.

referrals from someone with similar interests, risk levels and capital would help, but that is tough too.

Forget watching the DOW, it is not a very good representation of economy, wall st or markets. It is composed of very high cap stocks, and the world economy is no longer driven by such companies. Do watch the Moving averages, and volumes (candlesticks chart), and don't buy in on an impulse, but dollar cost average if the stuff is trading in cyberspace (above 200 day moving average by a large %). August (summer) is a tough time to be investing, as many folks (marketmakers) are on vacation.

If you are not comfortable with choosing stocks, then stick with indexes and/or mutual funds or ETF's (my preference). Risk is spread to many companies, maint costs are low, dividends / fund re-balancing doesn't mess with your end-of-year planning.

[davidt1]

Originally Posted by Roma

david1, I wish I had a 150% return. I obviously didn't pick the right stocks. You asked How it's going? Well, not good at all. I made a lot of mistakes.

I got into the market at the end of July (when it was around 13,500) then 2 days later the market tanked. It came back up but I am still long in a couple of positions and some of those didn't recover like others did. Then (LRCX) did something funky about a week ago and I was already long in that position and now, boy oh boy I'm dead in it. (Their earnings were good but 2 days later it came out that their sector was down) So the stock dropped and dropped fast. And I was already long in it.

So now I want to go a different route. I was thinking Mutual Funds or ETF's or even a CD.

I'm obviously not educated in all of this (as you can probably tell) and I need help.

We actually have more then $50,000 but that was my trade money. I cashed out of what I could and now I need to put it somewhere ($34,000). We have Mutual fund and other stuff through a financial advisor already but I don't like him. We retired 3 years ago and my husband used him for his company stock and we just kept him but I found out he put us in all loaded funds and everything we are in is to get him money (not what is best for us but what is best for him). So I want to find someone new.

Sorry it didn't work out for you. I, too, lost when I started out. You are not alone. Everyone has to pay tuition to the market. Hopefully, you didn't pay too much. Don't be discouraged. Mutuals funds and ETFs are good for many people to invest in. Here are some useful websites that can make your investment decisions a little easier. Good luck!

This site is very useful for mutual fund investors. You can find just about anything on mutual funds here.

Morningstar: Stocks, Mutual Funds, and Investing


This site is the mother of financial education websites. Anything a person ever wanted learn about the financial markets such as stocks, options, mutual funds, bonds, etc. can be found here.

Investopedia.com - Your Source For Investing Education


I notice that you will live in Westlake Village. It's a good city. I used to live there and work in Agoura Hills.

[forest beekeeper]

Originally Posted by Roma

Help please!

How would one go about finding a GOOD Financial Advisor? Where do I start? What do I look for?

Thanks!

Good luck, I honestly do not know.

So many just do not know any better picks then you rolling dice.

I would ask two questions though:
"How much did your personal Net Worth increase last year? the last five years? the last ten years?"

"What percentage of increase did you experience on your personal investment portfolio, and what percentage of taxes did you pay?"

If a person is paying 28% or 35% taxes, that is a third of their income they are wasting due to a lack of tax-planning and financial fore-sight.

Obviously anyone who pays above 5% is seriously missing a large part of the IRS puzzle. I am saying 5% just because I do understand that in some years a windfall may happen and you just missed getting it covered.

In my experience most folks who would proclaim themselves to be Financial advisors, are selling you a product. They are salesmen.

They are like a salesman selling you a box of nails. They have no idea of what to do with those nails, or how the nails are best used. and in some cases they may not know what it is that you do with a box of nails.

We play finance on a game board of sorts. You need an advisor who has a comprehensive understanding of the entire board and it's rules, and is not just focused on one section of the board. What good is a good product if you don't know what to do with it? What good is showing a large profit on a sale, when you are going to pay income taxes on it.

There are plenty of strategies where you can consistently show good growth and yet remain sheltered.

[StealthRabbit]

these sites were recommended in a recent local Fin Forum in Newspaper

recommendation was for 'fee-based' planner

Home Page - NAPFA - The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors
www.GarrettPlanningNetwork.com

[gentlearts]

Talk to a fee only financial guy. It's worth a couple hundred bucks. Take what he tells you and use the info to find out stuff on your own. I made the mistake of listening to a guy recommended by my lawyer, and he just wanted to sell me stuff he got a commission from.